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The Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan: A year in pictures

One year after Typhoon Haiyan swept across the Philippines, we are still working to help survivors rebuild their lives.

By Action Against Hunger

Nov 5 2014

One year after Typhoon Haiyan swept across the Philippines, we are still working to help survivors rebuild their lives.

One year ago, on November 8, Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda) struck the Philippines. Action Against Hunger responded immediately, and for the past year our teams have been working to rebuild communities devastated by the deadly storm. These pictures give a glimpse of the impact of the storm, the progress we’ve made, and the extraordinary resilience of people in the Philippines.

One of the strongest storms ever recorded, Typhoon Haiyan left 14 million people in need of aid – four million of whom lost their homes. This aerial view shows the extent of the devastation in Leyte caused by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.

We’ve been working in the Philippines since 2000, so we were well-positioned to provide aid immediately. With the support of international partners, we brought relief supplies to the typhoon-affected coastal villages of Tagubanhan and Canagnaan, two remote islands on the eastern coast of Iloilo province. In the days after the storm, our emergency response teams delivered nearly six tons of food to six isolated mountainous and coastal areas.

A family in Tacloban receives emergency food rations from our teams on November 23, 2013 in Tacloban. Our teams are working hard to prevent malnutrition in hard-hit communities by providing emergency food rations to people in need, conducting malnutrition screenings for children under five years old, and promoting care practices for mothers and babies.

In many areas hit hard by Haiyan, child malnutrition rates were already high before the storm. We treat cases of severe acute malnutrition and medical complications with inpatient care, as well as through community-based, outpatient programs. Here, a nutrition team member is measuring one-year-old baby Jared’s middle upper arm circumference to screen him for malnutrition. If the measuring tape shows red, that indicates malnutrition. The green indicates that this little one is safe.

A child washes her hands as part of hygiene promotion session in May 2014 in the village of San Antonio, Pilar, on Panay Island. To prevent outbreaks of waterborne disease in the aftermath of the typhoon, we distributed hygiene kits, built latrines and hand-washing stations, improved sanitation infrastructure, and promoted good hygiene practices.

We have a team of 390 skilled humanitarian aid workers assisting families in the Philippines. These team members are using tablets to collect information about families who are receiving unconditional cash grants in Burauen, Leyte. Widely used in emergency response, cash grants are designed to help the most vulnerable get back on their feet. Our program reaches 10,000 people, including pregnant and nursing mothers, single parents, families with malnourished children, and people with disabilities whose livelihoods were destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan.

Thanks to the unconditional cash grant program supported by UNICEF, 55-year-old Luz Refuerzo from Burauen, Leyte, has launched a small business selling dried fish. This income is much-needed—Luz takes care of her 79-year-old father, her 11-year-old grandson and her husband.

Residents are restoring their lives in Panay. Across the Philippines, we’re working on long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation projects that have reached more than 600,000 people so far. Though we have made significant strides, there is still much to do; a full recovery may take up to a decade as one million people remain displaced. We are committed to helping vulnerable communities get back on their feet, and your continued support is helping us reach hundreds of thousands of people in need.